Source: Theguardian.comBy David SmithElephant deaths in Tanzania have risen dramatically since the government abandoned a shoot-to-kill policy against poachers, officials admit.Lazaro Nyalandu, the deputy minister of natural resources and tourism, said 60 elephants were "butchered" in November and December, compared with two in October.Soldiers, police, game rangers and forestry officers had been involved in a month-long crackdown on poachers, codenamed Operation Terminate, in October. But the operation was suspended after an inquiry by MPs uncovered a litany of arbitrary murder, rape, torture and extortion of innocent people.Mizengo Pinda, the prime minister, told Reuters: "The anti-poaching operation had good intentions, but the reported murders, rapes and brutality are totally unacceptable."The inquiry's findings – including the killing of 13 civilians and arrest of more than 1,000 people – led to the sacking of the tourism minister Khamis Kagasheki, who had called for perpetrators of the illicit ivory trade to be executed "on the spot",as well as the defence minister Shamsi Vuai Nahodha, the home affairs minister Emmanuel Nchimbi and the livestock development minister David Mathayo.Nyalandu said that, with the operation on hold, the government would appeal to foreign donors to help Tanzania's wildlife department and ranger service. "Those to be approached include the European Union and Asian countries," he was quoted as saying in media reports. "Asian countries are reportedly the main consumers of elephant tusks and byproducts."There is huge demand for elephant tusks in many Asian countries, where they are used to make ornaments. In August 2011, Tanzanian authorities seized more than 1,000 elephant tusks hidden in sacks of dried fish at Zanzibar port and destined for Malaysia.Recent research by the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that 22,000 elephants were killed in 2012 and Africa will lose one-fifth of its elephants in the next decade if the poaching crisis is not arrested. There were around 10m African elephants at the start of the 20th century, but that number has fallen to 500,000 owing to poaching and habitat loss. More....

"The count of the Great Indian Bustard will be undertaken in January-February to know its population," Gujarat Principal Chief Wildlife Conservator of Forest (PCCF) C N Pandey said.

The exercise has been undertaken even in the past, Pandey said, adding that it is expected to give a realistic picture of the dwindling population of the species.

The survey count, Pandey said, will be undertaken by the state forest department, various scientific organisations, Non Government Organisations (NGOs) and nature clubs.

He said that in the last survey, 45-50 Great Indian Bustards were spotted in Kutch district of Gujarat.

"We are expecting the number of the species to rise in the current census. However, the count may not be an exact representation as the Great Indian Bustard keeps on moving locally within a radius of 50-100 km, making it difficult for surveyors to count their heads," he said.

"The actual count of the bird would be slightly more than what the survey report would generally indicate," he said.

Pandey, however, stated that the census would give a fair indication of whether the species is adapting to the changing habitat or not. Though the Great Indian Bustard, as per International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's largest global environmental organisation, is built to survive in harsh weather conditions, they have been exterminated from almost 90 per cent of their former range owing to loss of habitat and poaching. More....

Source: Voanews.comBy Peter CoxThe number of South African rhinos killed by poachers rose nearly 50 percent this year to almost 1,000.

As of December 19, poachers had killed 946 rhinos in South Africa this year. The South African department of environmental affairs says 668 were killed in 2012. A decade ago, in 2003, only 22 rhinos were poached.

Richard Emslie, a scientific officer in South Africa with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said, "It's a real crisis… for poaching to continue to escalate as it has done year on year is not sustainable."

He said the numbers don't bode well for the animals, which are being killed for their horns.

"At the rate poaching has been escalating continentally since 2008, we will reach the tipping point where deaths start to exceed births as soon as 2014 up to 2016, depending on the underlying growth rate of rhinos," said Emslie.South Africa is home to 83 percent of the continent's rhinos, 73 percent of the world's population.

Although South Africa arrested 330 poachers in 2013, environmental experts say that rising demand makes the fight against poaching harder. A single rhino horn can sell for thousands of dollars.

China and Southeast Asia are the biggest markets for rhino horn, which many people consider to be an aphrodisiac.

Changing that perception has become a major focus for anti-poaching organizations and governments. There have been ad campaigns in countries such as Vietnam to educate people on the effect of poaching, and to explain that the horns are made up largely of the same material as human finger- and toe-nails.

Some organizations also are trying to find other jobs for South Africans who might be recruited to poach. More....

Source: Theborneopost.comBy Cecilia SmanFeeding wildlife including hornbills with food that human consume to make them healthier and have a longer life span is a misconception.Saying this, Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) honorary ranger Musa Musbah explained that feeding wildlife with what human beings eat such as bananas, meat and bread could cause them to get sick.“Even fruits like bananas, they are sweet and repeatedly given to hornbills might cause them to have diabetes and shorten their lives,” Musa noted.He was presenting a talk on hornbills held in conjunction with an exhibition entitled ‘Enchanting Piasau Camp – A Nature Park in The City for Mirians’ at Boulevard Shopping Complex here yesterday.Musa, also the deputy chairman of the newly registered Piasau Camp Miri Nature Park Society (PCMNPS), had been tasked by the authorities to conduct observations on the Oriental Pied Hornbills at Piasau Camp.Hornbills are a totally protected species under the state’s Wild Life Protection Ordinance (1998).He said equally life threatening is putting the hornbills in cages as it could cause unnecessary stress among the animals.He said through his observation, hornbills at Piasau Camp eat natural food like garden snails, beetles, frogs, lizards, baby or yellow vented bulbuls, figs, berries and oil palm kernels.Musa said another misconception about hornbill is that hornbills could die if not released from their nest inside the tree trunk. More....

Source: Chinapost.com.twThe western black-crested gibbon (黑冠長臂猿) is more endangered than the giant panda, even though it is the country's most populous gibbon. With a global population of between 1,100 and 1,400, it was listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation's Red List. The gibbon, Nomascus concolor, has a discontinuous distribution pattern across southwestern China, northwestern Laos and northern Vietnam. Yunnan province has the biggest population, with nearly 80 percent of the primate species living in moist evergreen broadleaf forests on the Ailao Mountains and Wuliang Mountains. Fortunately, their habitats on the mountain ranges are by and large unspoiled. “Placing 1,000-1,300 western black-crested gibbons and their habitats under protection has become the country's biggest hope to keep gibbons singing in the wild,” says Long Yongcheng, the chief scientist with The Nature Conservancy's China Office. He was speaking at the launch ceremony for a trekking event on the Ailao Mountains, held recently in Kunming. Gibbons' singing was often described in ancient Chinese poems, the biologist said, as they could be found as far north as today's Gansu and Shanxi provinces. “But now, few people know the existence of gibbons in the country,” he says. “Fewer have the luck to listen to their duets in the wild.” That is because the country's six gibbon species can only be found in Yunnan and Hainan provinces, and in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The total population stands at about 1,500. Of them, a small area between northern Vietnam and Guangxi is the only habitat in the world where the eastern black-crested gibbon is found. With 18 families of about 100 animals, they have been “wandering around the borders,” according to Fan Pengfei, one of the country's leading gibbon researchers. The Hainan gibbon, found only in the island province, is also one of the world's most endangered primate species. The newest figure is two families of 23 mammals, Long says, all residing in Bawangling National Nature Reserve. In 2003, there were only two groups of 13 gibbons.Northern white-cheeked gibbon, with a population of more than 2,000 in southern Yunnan in the 1960s and a population of about seven groups of 40 animals in 1989, has not been sighted for many years. More....

Source: Earthisland.orgBy Kimberley DelfinoCalifornia is a great example for how to protect threatened species. Forty years ago tomorrow — on December 28, 1973 — President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) into law. This landmark legislation has defined America’s commitment to wildlife conservation ever since. The ESA and other bedrock environmental laws such as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts affirm for all Americans that we are a nation dedicated to conserving our natural heritage for future generations — through our national parks and refuges, through clean air and water, and by protecting our wildlife.In the four decades since the ESA’s passage, more than 1,200 plants and animals in the United States have put been under the law’s protection. The act has been essential to a range of conservation success stories. The brown pelican, the American alligator, and the grizzly bear — along with our national symbol, the bald eagle — have all experienced amazing comebacks thanks to the ESA. My home state, California, offers an inspiring example of the ESA in action. The Golden State may be the most populous in the nation — a place more often associated with freeways and traffic jams than with wildlife roaming the forests and deserts — but California is also the location of some of the ESA’s greatest successes. Some of the species that have been protected by the ESA call California home, including the El Segundo blue butterfly and the southern sea otter which are found only in California’s Central Coast and Southern regions, while the humpback whale, green sea turtle, peregrine falcon and bald eagle have ranges across California and its coastline. Such success stories prove that we can protect imperiled species and improve California’s economy and infrastructure at the same time. And they also demonstrate that when we work together to protect our nation’s wildlife and public lands, we reap numerous benefits — tangible and intangible — in the process. People travel from all across the United States and from around the world to visit California’s majestic parks and wildlife refuges — Yosemite, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, and San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge. Our state’s iconic plants and animals are legendary — towering redwoods, spawning salmon, California condors and desert tortoises.

In California, we’ve proven that we can safeguard endangered plants and animals while simultaneously offering benefits to landowners. More....

Source: Mid-day.comBy Ranjeet JadhavScientists tie transmitter to a bird in Chandrapur; say data gleaned from its movement will give valuable insights into the habitat favourable for conserving the endangered bird.Ornithographers at the Nannaj Wildlife Sanctuary (NWS) near Solapur, home to the Great Indian Bustard (GIB), see hope for the endangered species of bird, one they have been entrusted to ensure does not become a historical fact.In order to save the imperiled bird and help in its conservation, a male bustard was fitted with a transmitter on Christmas evening at Ashti village, Warora taluka, Chandrapur district. Scientists will now closely monitor its movements, and the information they glean through the research will be used in creating a favourable ecology for the bird to thrive. The experiment was carried out by Dr Bilal Habib and his team from the Wildlife Institute of India, in collaboration with the state forest department. The NWS, which is located roughly 22 km from Solapur, is among the handful of places in the state where the rare bird can be spotted. The state government had declared it a GIB sanctuary in 1979 to conserve the species. “Even after it was declared a GIB sanctuary, the forest department was not able to do much to save the bird,” said a forest official, requesting anonymity.First in world “This is the first case in the whole world that a transmitter has been attached to a GIB. The bird resumed normal activity after release. The experiment is sponsored by the state’s CAMPA funds,” said another officials of the forest department. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority, or CAMPA, was set up by the government in 2009 for wildlife management and preservation of natural environment, as per the environment ministry’s guidelines. “The study will give critical information about the ecology and habitat essential for the bird’s conservation. It will also help increase the bustard population in Nannaj,” said Sunil Limaye, chief conservator of forests (Pune Wildlife). The data that will be gathered from this research will also help the officials of the NWS in developing the appropriate ecology for this bird. At present, there are around 20-25 Great Indian Bustards left in Maharashtra. A few months ago, three were sighted in Nannaj. The Indian Bustard, also known as maldhok in Marathi, is endangered.Expert talk Raju Kasambe, project manger, Important Bird Area Programme, Bombay Natural History Society, said, “The transmitter will throw light on very crucial information like where the GIB disappears after the breeding season between December and May. This will also help in obtaining information about whether the bird is hunted during its migration period. The data that will be garnered from this research will help us set up a conducive and adequate environment for this critically endangered species.” Photos.

Source: AllAfrica.comThe Mozambican police have arrested a Guinean citizen, named as Mussa Jane, in the northern province of Niassa, in possession of two elephant tusks, weighing 28.5 kilos, according to a report on the independent television station, STV. The wholesale price of ivory rose from 100 US dollars a kilo in the 1990s to 850 dollars a kilo in 2007. Since then the prices have continued to rocket. This year, prices for mounted elephant tusks in Hong Kong reached the equivalent of 26,432 dollars a kilo. These tusks were supposedly “legal” - that is acquired from elephants shot before the international ban on the ivory trade. If the tusks in the Guinean's possession were sold for a similar price, they would fetch over 753,000 dollars. Jane was also found to be carrying precious stones, including tourmalines and amazonites, weighing a total of one and a half kilos. He was also in possession of 135,000 meticais (4,500 US dollars) in banknotes. The police arrested Jane at a checkpoint in Chimbonila district. He had come from Majune district, and was on his way to the provincial capital, Lichinga. The tusks, stones and money were found inside a suitcase. Jane claimed that the goods did not belong to him, and he was just carrying them for a friend. “A friend asked me to take the suitcase to Lichinga. So I put it on the bus and I didn't know what was inside”, he said. Jane said he was “very surprised” when the police opened the suitcase and he saw what it contained. “I was never involved in the ivory business”, he said, “I just sell precious stones”.

Source: News.xinhuanet.comRussia along with four other Caspian countries ceases to fish sturgeons in 2014, Russian fishing industry agency Rosrybolovstvo said Friday. According to the agency's head Alexander Savelyev, a joint commission of Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan reached an agreement on commercial fishing moratorium for the first time ever. "The common sense eventually has prevailed. Nature should be given a rest to restore sturgeon's population," Interfax news agency quoted Savelyev as saying. The official said the moratorium on fishing would last for five years. Russia stopped fishing on sturgeon in 2002. Since 2011, Moscow has been offering other Caspian countries to follow its example. Sturgeon, valued for its black caviar, is unique for the Caspian Sea which is a home to 96 percent of its global population. Its stocks have dramatically dwindled due to human factors such as poaching.

Source: Hindustantimes.comBy Vikram Jit Singh [Admin note: Poachers are getting all too clever!\A bizarre case of wildlife trafficking has surfaced with the Punjab Police apprehending a poacher at the Shambu barrier, Rajpura, who was carrying a 5.5-foot snake, which had been painted over with brown colour to make it resemble a Common sand boa, a species that is highly valued in the international market. The snake, which experts have identified as an Indian rock python falling under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, had its tail lopped off so that it resembled the two-faced look of the boa. "Its eyes are covered with paint and it is in a critical condition. The tail has been chopped off cleverly and by a person who is knowledgeable in snakes as the anal orifices have not been affected by the cut. The cut in the tail has also been done in such a manner that its thickness at that point matches the size of the mouth,"' a Punjab Forests and Wildlife Preservation department official told Hindustan Times. Punjab chief wildlife warden Dhirendra K Singh said, "It is a Wart snake, also known as an Elephant trunk snake or File snake. It is not found in this region. It is an aquatic snake, which lives in mud. It has not been painted but was covered with mud. It falls under Schedule IV of the Wildlife Act." This was contradicted by the veterinary inspector at Patiala, Surinder Singh, who said: "The snake was a viper. It was seized by the police from Balwinder Kumar, son of Gokul Chand. Kumar lives in Ludhiana and was taking the snake there. We have booked him under Sections 9, 39, 50 and 51 of the Wildlife Act. Kumar has been sent in judicial custody. The snake has been sent to Chhatbir zoo." However, Punjab State Wildlife Advisory Board member Nikhil Sanger, who has rescued and dealt with thousands of snakes, is categorical. "This is a python. Illegal trade in pythons can lead up to seven years in imprisonment. The attempt by the poachers was to pass off a python as a boa by painting it and cutting off its tail, as the latter sells for lakhs of rupees. The snake is not responding to mud treatment at the Chhatbir zoo where it is being kept, indicating further that it is not an aquatic snake living in mud. Neither has the mud come off with washing off the snake with warm water. I suspect an attempt is being made to hush up the case." Sanger's opinion is also strengthened by the fact that the Wildlife department has not gone in for a DNA test from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, where other animals at the zoo have been similarly tested in the past. Neither has the department asked for an expert to conduct a scale count of the snake, which would scientifically establish the species. Photo.

Source: Tallahassee.comEditorialIn the Everglades, an area synonymous with Florida wildlife, Burmese pythons now slither through the river of grass. The invasive snakes can grow to more than 20 feet long and weigh more than 200 pounds. One 16-footer was found with a full-grown deer in its belly. Others have devoured alligators. Sightings in the Everglades of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other mammals have plummeted.Just west of Miami, state biologists are taking a survey based on the suspicion that rock pythons are now established there. The rock python, the largest snake in Africa, will eat almost anything.Meanwhile, in a federal court in Washington, D.C., the United States Association of Reptile Keepers is suing to overturn a ban on the importation and transportation of four constrictor snakes — including the Burmese python.That’s crazy.In January 2012, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — taking into account public comments and business and environmental analyses — banned the Burmese python, yellow anaconda, and the northern and southern African pythons as injurious wildlife. The rule was announced at a news conference in the Everglades.Those who already owned snakes could keep them — unless possession was illegal under state law, as it is in Florida for the Burmese python. But they could not bring them across state lines.However, the United States Association of Reptile Keepers says the ban is crippling the constricting-snake industry, which brought in $100 million in revenue each year — about a tenth of the $1.0 billion to $1.4 billion generated by the reptile industry as a whole.“Many thousands of small businesses are financially reliant on this trade,” USARK said.A key allegation is that the Fish and Wildlife Service used improper climate data to calculate where the invasive snakes could survive in the wild. In trying to guess where these snakes can or can’t survive, let’s err on the side of caution. As South Florida can attest, once an invasive species is established, there is no eliminating it.Besides, Florida continues to attract people from all over the country with the same gentle climate that allows the snakes to thrive. So if the snakes are freely traded elsewhere, you know where some will wind up.The spread of creatures that pose such a threat should be stopped. Let’s hope the court sees it that way, too.

Source: Gulfnews.comBy Anjana SankarConcerns are rising among residents that their pets are being stolen for use in the illegal sport of dogfighting. Their suspicions strengthened after a 10-month-old pitbull, Tayson, which went missing from a Nad Al Sheba villa last week was found at a farm in Al Ruwayyah with severe injuries. The dog’s eye and ear had bite marks and his right legs were broken. “My dog would have died. The wounds were so bad the vet said he must have been assaulted by other dogs for more than an hour,” said pet owner F.K. She had left Tayson with her friend Sara Waheed. “We got a call from Sara’s parents on December 18 saying my dog had gone missing from the garden inside the villa. My friend and I started combing the area. We came across two teenage boys who also owned pitbulls. When we asked them if they had seen my pet, they said they had seen a pitbull and that their pets had attacked the dog. We didn’t believe their story and probed further only to find out that they had taken my pet to their farm in Al Ruwayyah,” she said. F.K. said she was shocked when she saw Tayson. “It was a heart-rending sight. It was obvious that he was used in dogfighting. He is just a baby and does not even know how to defend himself,” she said, adding that she will file a police case to nail the culprits after she gets the medical reports. This incident, along with the recovery of a Siberian Husky from a dogfighter, has sparked outrage among animal lovers and pet owners. “Many pets disappear here. We suspect they are being stolen for use in dogfighting,” said Jackie Ratcliffe, managing director of K9 Friends in Dubai who has rescued dogs that were used as bait. Exposing animals to negligence, cruelty or malnourishment is punishable by law. Penalties include imprisonment and fines.

Source: Business-standard.comIncreased surveillance in the over 480 sq km Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary at nearby Shenbagathopu has started yielding results by way of fines from poachers, District forest officer Ashok Kumar said today.

He said the forest department had acted tough against poachers and had collected Rs 11 lakh fine from them.

The sanctuary also houses Tigers,Elephants,leopard and deer

He said the frequency of surprise checks had been increased and a total of 83 cases registered in 2012 and 2013. The quantum of fine had been increased to check the poaching.

He said closed circuit cameras had also been installed to monitor forest areas and more tough action would be taken in the coming months to totally prevent poaching. Cases hadbeen registered in Rajapayalam, Srivilliputhur and sivakasi areas, he said.

The sanctuary is contiguous with Periyar tiger reserve on the south-western side and Megamalai reserve forest on the north-western side.

It is home to the endangered, arboreal grizzled giant squirrel Ratufa macrora. This greyish brown squirrel weighs from 1 kg to 1.8 kg and is in the size of a small cat. It measures about 735 mm long from nose to tail, with the tail measuring from 360 mm to 400 mm long.

These squirrels construct drays at forked branches where crowns of neighbouring trees meet,enabling them move away from the site by jumping from tree to tree when threatened, says the forest department.

Source: Mwebantu.comThe Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) has arrested two suspects for illegally being in possession of 115.5kg of ivory, which are worth about 16 dead elephants put together. ZAWA Communications and Public Relations Officer Readith Muliyunda said in a statement in Lusaka, Ms Muliyunda said this was stocked up Ivory suspected to have been poached over a period of one year or two. One elephant is worth about K50,000. Hence the total value of elephants lost as a result of this particular vice is a whooping K800,000. “This is a great loss of revenue for the country as we seek to protect Wildlife from illegal poaching and trade in order for it to serve its broader purpose of contributing to the country’s economic and tourism sectors.” She said. She said the named suspects in this case, is a business woman aged 52 of Chaisa in Lusaka and a man who identified himself as a taxi driver, aged 37 of Lusaka West. “The duo was caught after Officers mounted a road block in Mukunku, in Mumbwa District at the weekend and a Toyota corona, registration number, ABL 2666, in which they were travelling, has since been impounded. They were four in the car and were on their way to Lusaka, but two escaped and are currently on the run. After searching the motor Vehicle, the Officers found 31 pieces of ivory weighing 115.5 Kg packed in two huge traveling bags. The woman was also found with a ZANACO ATM bank that doesn’t belong to her. The Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) is also carrying out their own investigations in the matter. ZAWA would like to warn members of the Public that poaching and trafficking in Ivory is a very serious offence and those found wanting will be brought to book immediately.” Ms Muliyunda said. She said poaching of Elephants for Ivory has become a major concern, not only in Zambia, but Africa as a whole and government has pledged to give extra support to ZAWA to ensure that this is curbed. It is for this reason that government has put in place a moratorium on Elephant hunting in Zambia to monitor and establish its population locally. Ms Muliyunda said at the Elephant summit held in Gaborone, Botswana last month, Vice President Guy Scott said measures to combat illegal Wildlife must be taken seriously by all African states, including the government of Zambia.

Source: Alternet.orgBy Richard Schiffman I was choking back tears by the end of my interview with Andrea Turkalo. Turkalo is one of the founding members of the Elephant Listening Project, which is documenting elephants' ability to communicate, often using low-frequency sounds below the threshold of human hearing. She is conducting her fieldwork at Dzanga Bai, an idyllic clearing in the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park in the Central African Republic (CAR) where elephants come to drink the mineral-rich waters and wallow in the mud. Unlike their cousins on the open savannah, forest elephants are typically hidden by thick jungle and difficult to track. Scientists often locate the reclusive animals by monitoring their vocalizations, some of which can be detected from miles away. Despite being one of the best protected sites in the region, heavily armed poachers entered Dzanga Bai last May butchering 26 elephants, mostly mothers and their calves. They fired their automatic weapons from the observation platforms used by researchers themselves, leaving behind a horrific crime scene. The grassy glade, usually teeming with elephant family groups emotionally reuniting after weeks of wandering in small bands through the forest, was littered with piles of elephant parts, bones and blood-soaked scraps of skin. Tragically, such scenes are becoming commonplace throughout Central Africa. An astonishing 60 percent of the region’s forest elephants have been lost in the first decade of the 21st century, and they have disappeared entirely from over half of their range in just the past 30 years. The forest elephant is regarded by biologists as a separate species from the more numerous and larger bush elephants of the African plains, but it is under the same unrelenting pressure from poachers, who are slaughtering them in order to hack off their tusks. Elephant ivory is fashioned into intricately carved statues, jewelry and religious icons, which are in demand worldwide, but especially prized in East Asia and the Philippines—a $7 billion to $10 billion a year business. Most ivory is processed in China, but a lot of the carving is now being done in Africa itself, particularly in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The prime subject for African carvers, ironically enough, is elephants. Ivory elephants may already outnumber the living creatures, which are being killed at the unsustainable rate of 35,000 per year. Fully eight out of 10 elephants now die as a result of poaching rather than from natural causes. The frenzy to obtain ivory is accelerating, as many Asian economies boom and prices for the increasingly rare luxury items soar. Andrea Turkalo knows all about this frenzy. Last March, she managed to escape from advancing Séléka guerilla fighters who were descending on the nation’s capital Bangui to stage the coup that ousted former CAR President François Bozizé. Turkalo is now back in the states waiting for things to settle down before returning to Africa. Groups like the Séléka train their guns on innocent civilians as well as the wild elephants in their path. More....

Source: InCyprus.philenews.comCyprus is facing international embarrassment after a rare bird, last spotted on the island in 1979, was shot and killed by poachers, a conservation group has said. Speaking to The Cyprus Weekly, BirdLife Cyprus spokesperson Tassos Shialis said the local bird watching community is still in shock over the illegal shooting of a Little Bustard (Tetrax tetrax) within the UN controlled buffer zone near Yeri in Nicosia. “The Little Bustard is not yet on the critically endangered list but it has a threatened status and is extremely rare in Cyprus. This is a terrible embarrassment for Cyprus and a detrimental blow to bird conservation.” According to Shialis, the Little Bustard which was spotted in early December was found dead in a no-hunting zone on Sunday with tests revealing that it was illegally shot. The previous recorded sighting of the bird in Cyprus took place 34 years ago. “We believe it ended up here after losing its orientation or being blown off course. This particular species is more commonly spotted in Israel or Turkey,” Shialis explained. After the recent spotting, news spread quickly within the bird watching community and dozens of people flocked to the area to catch a glimpse of the rare species which they hoped would winter in Cyprus. Birdwatchers were left shattered when instead of spotting the Little Bustard in nature they stumbled across its lifeless body. “This illegal shooting once again highlights the serious problem of poaching on the island of non-game species especially in areas where hunting is forbidden.” The conservationist added that Birdlife is now calling upon the competent authorities to take greater action against poaching, particularly within the buffer zone which has become a trapping hotspot. BirdLife data released earlier in the week revealed that illegal bird trapping in Cyprus has increased by 54% since 2002 while some 1.5 million birds were killed on the island in 2013 with mist nets and lime sticks.

Source: Independent.co.ukBy Michael McCarthySaving elephants, as followers of The Independent’s Christmas Appeal will know, seems to be a harder and harder task as the killing in Africa gets more difficult to control. But there is one particular way forward which offers hope, and which at first may seem surprising, and that is through saving sharks.

A giant vegetarian land mammal wouldn’t at first sight seem to have much in common with a deep-sea predator. But elephants and sharks share a cruel curiosity of fate: they both have bodily protuberances which humans find so valuable they will kill both sets of creatures to get them.

With elephants, or course, it’s their ivory tusks, now in booming demand especially among the rising middle class of China. With sharks, it’s their fins, an essential ingredient in what has long been another fad of wealthy Chinese: shark’s fin soup.

While elephants are killed in their thousands, sharks are killed in their millions for the soup. The slaughter is having a drastic effect on shark populations, with 32 per cent of deep-sea species threatened with extinction.

“Shark finning” is a pitiless form of fishing involving cutting off the fins while the fish are still alive and then throwing them back into the sea. The reason is a pair of shark fins can sell in Asia for $700 a kilo – and the less valuable shark bodies would be an encumbrance on a fisherman’s boat.

But in July this year the European Union brought in a regulation ending the practice, and in future all EU boats will have to land sharks with their fins still attached.

Ali Hood, of Britain’s Shark Trust, sees this as a major step forward, not least because the EU is a big player in the shark market, with Spain alone having the third-biggest shark catch in the world, and also because the move will give the EU the moral authority to persuade other nations to do the same. But the biggest obstacle to lessening the global shark slaughter is the demand from China.

In 2006, the inventive conservation body WildAid, based in San Francisco and headed by British-born Peter Knights, began a campaign to make the Chinese public realise that shark’s fin soup represents a big conservation problem.

The campaign took off when in 2009 China’s best-known sports star, basketball player Yao Ming, appeared in a film saying he would no longer eat the soup and used the slogan “Mei yu mai mai, jiu mei yu sha hai”, meaning “When the buying stops, the killing can too.” More....

Source: Nrcu.gov.UAIn 1991 it had more than 50 species of game fish. Now only three species - anchovy, goby and pilenhas have been left for full fledged fish catch. This was reported in the press service of the Association of Fishermen of Ukraine. According to the State Environmental Inspectorate, over the past decade in the Azov Sea the volume of pilenhas catch decreased more than twofold, walleye - threefold. The Inspectorate officials believe, the main reason is the massive pollution of the Azov Sea through industrial and household sewage, poor maintenance of fisheries and inadequate protection of aquatic resources. Considerable damage was caused by poaching. More than a dozen species of fish have been included into the Red Book of Ukraine as an endangered species.

Source: Dailypress.comBy Tamara DietrichVirginia anglers love their rockfish.So much so that massive overfishing here and along the East Coast in the '70s and '80s brought the population to the brink of collapse and forced fishing bans in state and federal waters.Soon the stock began to recover, and Virginia lifted its ban after a few years. But the U.S. Coast Guard is reminding the public it's still illegal to catch or even possess rockfish in federal waters that begin three nautical miles off the coast and stretch out to 200 miles, an area called the Exclusive Economic Zone."They're federally protected," explained Lt. Scott Williams, spokesman for U.S. Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads. "Boaters, whether they're commercial fishermen or recreational fishermen, could be subject to fines if they were to catch Atlantic striped bass in that Exclusive Economic Zone."Rockfish are also known as Atlantic striped bass, or stripersThe Coast Guard says it's stepping up enforcement efforts, and established a hotline at 757-398-6399 for the public to anonymously report suspected striped bass poachers.Callers are asked to describe the activity they witnessed, those involved and the location and time of the suspected offense. Violators are subject to civil fines.While Virginia allows licensed recreational and commercial fishing for striped bass in its waters, its marine patrol officers are deputized to enforce poaching laws in federal waters.John Bull at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission said they don't have striped bass poaching figures because summonses don't distinguish one fish species from another.But an Interstate Watershed Task Force investigation last year found that Virginia and Maryland fishermen took more than a million pounds of striped bass illegally from the Chesapeake Bay between 2003 and 2009.That investigation led to the convictions of 19 individuals and three corporations, and resulted in 140 months of cumulative prison time, 58 years of cumulative supervised release and more than $1.6 million in fines and restitution.'Made in Virginia'The Atlantic striped bass is an iconic species in the Chesapeake Bay, distinguished by the dark stripes running horizontally along its metallic sides. It's a popular sport fish for anglers and an important food source for larger fish and fish-eating birds. More....

Source: Scmp.comBy Simon ParryThe price of elephant tusks in Hong Kong has shot up by more than fiftyfold in the past decade, raising concerns that the legal trade is fuelling demand for poached ivory and driving some African elephant populations towards extinction.A 65kg pair of mounted tusks is on sale for HK$15 million at Chinese Arts and Crafts in Wan Chai. A smaller pair weighing about 40kg is offered for HK$8.2 million. That is equivalent to a per-kilogram price of between HK$205,000 and HK$230,770. In 2002, a major report on the ivory trade found that a 78kg pair of elephant tusks could be bought in Hong Kong for just HK$250,000 - less than one fiftieth of the price of the smaller pair of tusks on sale at the mainland-owned Wan Chai store. The sky-high ivory price compares with an average HK$1,220 per kilogram fetched when 102 tonnes of stockpiled ivory was controversially sold to China and Japan by four African countries in 2008. That sale - approved by CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) - was the last legal sale of an ivory stockpile globally after a worldwide ban was imposed in 1989. Hong Kong shops need government-issued licences to sell certain types of ivory, including products carved before the 1989 ban, ivory from the tusks of extinct mammoths, and ivory bought from government stockpile sales in southern Africa. Staff at branches of Chinese Arts and Crafts said buyers were snapping up ivory not only for display but as an investment, as its value was rising at a rate of 20 per cent a year. "There is no more ivory, so the price is going up and up," said a saleswoman at the Pacific Place branch of the chain, where a 116cm antique tusk is on sale for HK$1.9 million. Grace Ge Gabriel, Asia regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said the legal ivory trade in Hong Kong was exacerbating the illegal trade in poached and smuggled ivory. "The legal ivory trade not only provides cover for smuggled ivory to be laundered. It also gives consumers the impression that buying ivory is OK and stimulates more people's desire to buy," she said. "Moreover, compared with the astronomical price of ivory in China … the price one pays to buy ivory in Africa is so much cheaper. If one smuggles ivory into China and sells it under the cover of the legal market, the profit margin could be very high." More....

Source: Examiner.comBy Ira FisherFor many cities and towns across our country the circus is a tradition of the holiday season. Revelations about behind the scenes practices of the circus raises serious questions about an event that many Americans regard as a holiday tradition. For the most part, the circus is a wonderful event. The clowns, acrobats, trapeze artists and other talented performers provide terrific entertainment. There is, however, a dark side to traditional circuses that the industry keeps far from the glare of the bright lights of the big top. The “tricks” that wild animals are forced to perform is contrary to their nature and the training methods that utilize violence, fear, and intimidation inflict great pain, suffering, injury and sometimes death. One of the featured events of many circuses is a tiger jumping through a ring of fire. This makes one wonder, why would a tiger, that is terrified of fire, do this death-defying trick? A similar question is raised with respect to an elephant performing a headstand, which is stressful, painful and dangerous. The answer lies in the fact that these animals have learned a fear greater than that of the acts they are forced to perform. The circus industry would have the public believe that abuse is not used to train the wild animals that entertain their audiences. However, the tools of the trade used by trainers belie this claim. In the case of big cats, these tools typically include whips, tight collars and chains or wire tie-downs. In the case of elephants, they include bullhooks (A heavy metal poker with a sharp point-and-hook at one end. The point is for pushing; the hook, inserted in the mouth or at the top of the ear, is for pulling. Both are sharp enough to pierce elephant hide.), electro-shocking devices and whips that cause these highly social, emotionally sensitive and intelligent beings severe pain and instill great fear. Joyce Poole PhD, a world-renowned expert in elephant behavior, reviewed undercover footage showing the treatment of elephants by circus employees. Dr. Poole observed: “The footage shows gratuitous violence against them – hitting, poking, jabbing, hooking elephants on the head, ears, trunk and limbs with bullhooks … striking of elephants with bullhooks, whips and other objects keeps them in a constant state of fear and stress so that they will obey and perform on command…”. Much of the brutal treatment is inflicted upon baby elephants and is designed to break their spirit at a time when they should still be with their mothers. This abuse cries out for an answer to the question: Does the use of wild animals as performers in circuses send a wrong message to children that cruelty to animals is acceptable? Human decency suggests that children, instead, be taught to extend their circle of compassion to include these remarkable beings and to appreciate their true nature. More....

When I was a child, I was haunted by the pictures I would see on tv and in books of elephants butchered for their tusks, with their poor grief-stricken youngsters lying next to their parents bodies. But after a while things got better - there was a ban on the despicable ivory trade in 1989 and things improved. The intelligent beautiful elephant populations started to recover. But in the past few years the African elephant has been targeted like never before. There is now urgent action needed. In some areas, elephant populations have plummeted by a staggering 80 per cent in six years. Some believe that if the slaughter continues at its current rate elephants could be wiped off the face of the earth within 10 years. Whole herds are gunned down from helicopters by armed militia. Ivory trinkets are sold to fund terrorist activities, or they are kept under lock and key in the hope that the scarcer the beasts become, the more expensive the trinkets will get. Earlier this month, David Cameron gave his backing to the excellent campaign run by the Independent newspaper. The Chinese government are particularly under pressure because demand for ivory in China has fuelled much of the poaching. Environment secretary, Owen Paterson told the Independent: Mr Paterson, who is leading government efforts to tackle the ivory trade, added that both supply and demand needed to be addressed. He said: “We are losing a rhino every 11 hours and we are losing an elephant every 15 minutes – because ivory is worth $2,000 a kilo. “There is absolutely no doubt about it – the value is enormous. For ivory alone the value of crime is around £10bn. So there is huge interest in solving this problem. “And it would be a huge indictment if we don’t. We are organising a summit in February and we’ve got people coming from right across the world. And thanks to our meetings this week, the Chinese have also agreed to attend.” Please please donate to the campaign, which you can do by visiting the Independent’s website below, which also carries a series of fascinating, and upsetting articles and films, most of which I opted not to watch.

Source: Onegreenplanet.orgBy Brian Dooling After years of promising progress toward the complete banning of shark finning in the U.S., a possible loophole in federal jurisdiction may set efforts back, increasing the risk to sharks worldwide. A number of states have even gone as far as banning the trading of shark fins but laws that give the federal government the final say act like anchors slowing down the full speed ahead attitude of the anti-shark finning movement. In the world of conservation, to achieve the most success, conservation has always relied on a delicate balance of national and local government power and regulation, which sadly is out whack this time around. The broad authority the federal government has on fishery management is now proposing a legal form of shark finning, while still officially endorsing a shark fin ban. This bizarre conundrum seems like a massive typo but it’s not. These new proposals would even infringe on states that have already passed laws banning the trade of shark fins. To even begin to understand this mess you need to look at the laws that have been passed. Back in 2000, then President Clinton, signed the Shark Finning Prohibition Act. This act prohibits cutting fins from sharks and throwing the bodies back in the water. It also prohibits any person from possessing fins aboard vessels or landing in ports without the rest of the body. Then in 2010, the U.S. continued to strengthen the finning laws by passing the Shark Conservation Act. This act requires any shark brought to shore to be intact and fin attached naturally. It is meant to prevent shark finning from occurring at all. Most recently, this past March, the countries involved with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) voted to protect oceanic whitetip sharks, scalloped, smooth and great hammerhead sharks, and porbeagle sharks from overexploitation, specifically aimed at the shark fin trade. The U.S. was at the forefront of naming these species to the CITES list, encouraging other countries to vote in favor of instituting sustainable fishing methods. All of these achievements since 2000 has reduced shark finning in U.S. waters and the size of the shark fin market within the U.S. as well. In fact, the Blue Ocean Institute reports a 68 percent reduction in shark fin imports after eight states banned the trade of shark fins from 2010 to 2013. More....

Source: Gainesville.comBy Michael Markarian It’s been big news that non-native boa constrictors, Burmese pythons and African rock pythons are living and breeding in the wild and subsequently wreaking havoc on the ecosystem, frightening citizens and killing pets in residential neighborhoods. The question isn’t if these dangerous predators are going to colonize other areas, but when and where they are going to become established. Scientists confirmed last year that non-native boa constrictors are now breeding in Puerto Rico and spreading across the island. Boa constrictors have established more invasive populations than any other species of constrictor snake. In addition to parts of Florida and Puerto Rico, boas are also established in Cozumel and Aruba where they consume an estimated 17,000 birds annually. Earlier this year, two boa constrictors were found loose on public property in Hawaii, another state where the snakes can survive.These Boa constrictor invasions may have been triggered when owners who could no longer care for their pet snakes dumped them into the wild. Too often people purchase pet snakes when the animals are young and manageable, but there are very few options for placement once they grow too dangerous to handle. In South Florida, the non-native snake invasion caused by irresponsible pet owners may have been exacerbated when a hurricane destroyed a reptile dealer’s facility, setting captive snakes loose where they now prey on native wildlife, including endangered species.“Once non-native snakes become established across a large area, especially in densely forested areas, they become much more difficult to find and almost impossible to eradicate,” U.S. Geological Survey scientist Bob Reed told CBS News for its story about the Puerto Rican boa constrictor invasion. In fact, not a single invasive reptile species has ever been eradicated through management efforts and taxpayers will continue to spend millions of dollars to try and control the snakes already thriving in Florida’s environment.With clutch sizes of up to 124 eggs, these snakes reproduce rapidly. The release or escape of a single pregnant python in a hospitable habitat could result in colonization in a new area. The more humane and fiscally responsible approach is to prevent the problem in the first place. In 2010, Florida passed a law making it illegal to breed, sell or keep most large constrictor snakes as pets.It’s overdue for the Obama administration to follow suit on a national scale. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had a proposal under consideration to ban the trade of nine exotic snake species that the U.S. Geological Survey identified as posing a significant risk to the environment. More....

Source: NJ1015.comBy Dino FlammiaInternational smuggling doesn’t only involve drugs and counterfeit goods. In fact, the illegal transport of wildlife parts has become one of the most lucrative forms of international crime. Black market demand has increased, threatening the future of the world’s most magnificent animals.A Chinese national pleaded guilty in Newark federal court on Thursday to being the organizer of an illegal wildlife smuggling conspiracy in which rhinoceros horns, elephant ivory and numerous objects made from the material were smuggled from the United States to China. Overseas, the smuggled horns were sold at a rate of $17,500 per pound to factories where they were carved into fake antiques or ground to powder for “possible medicinal purposes.” “Rhino horn can sell for more than gold and is just as rare, but rhino horn and elephant ivory are more than mere commodities,” said Robert Dreher, acting assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. “Each illegally traded horn or tusk represents a dead animal, poaching, bribery, smuggling and organized crime.” “The brutality of animal poaching, wherever it comes from, feeds the demand of a multibillion-dollar illegal international market,” added New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman. “As a major hub of international commerce through our ports and busy airport, the District of New Jersey plays an important role in curbing the escalation of this devastating trade.” According to the Associated Press, all rhinoceros species are protected under U.S. and international law, and international trade in rhino horns and elephant ivory has been regulated since the mid-1970s. Audiofile.